Pentagon closes intelligence unit

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press

The Pentagon on Monday said it was closing a controversial intelligence office that had raised concerns about domestic spying by the military after the September 11 attacks.

The Defense Department said it had "disestablished" the Counterintelligence Field Activity office, or CIFA, created in February 2002 by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to manage defense and armed service efforts against intelligence threats from foreign powers and groups such as al Qaeda.

Those responsibilities will now be carried out by a new organization called the Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center, overseen by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency.

CIFA's operations stirred concern among members of Congress and civil liberties advocates. A CIFA database known as Talon, set up to monitor threats against U.S. military installations, was found to have retained information on U.S. antiwar protesters including Quakers after they had been found to pose no security danger, officials said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080804/ts_nm/usa_military_intelligence_dc_2

[Donnachaidh]

1. Baloney -- just re-named and hidden elsewhere

"disestablished" my shiny metal ass.

[IndianaGreen]

11. A simple org name change in the Pentagon's database

Same mission. Same cast of characters.

[harun]

18. Agreed (n/t)

[redqueen]

19. Yup... like all the ones before it. (nt)

[Imagevision]

2. The pentagon only needed it opened for 9-11 attacks...

[notadmblnd]

3. has it been contracted out to Blackwater?

[Joanne98]

4. They're moving it into the Carlyle Group....

Carlyle Group May Buy Major CIA Contractor: Booz Allen Hamilton

by Tim Shorrock , Special to CorpWatch
March 8th, 2008


The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity funds, may soon acquire the $2 billion government contracting business of consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the biggest suppliers of technology and personnel to the U.S. government’s spy agencies. Carlyle manages more than $75 billion in assets and has bought and sold a long string of military contractors since the early 1990s. But in recent years it has significantly reduced its investments in that industry. If it goes ahead with the widely reported plan to buy Booz Allen, it will re-emerge as the owner of one of America’s largest private intelligence armies.

Reports of a potential Carlyle acquisition of Booz Allen’s government unit began circulating among U.S. military contractors in December 2007, after Booz Allen’s senior partners and board members – a group of 300 vice presidents who own the privately-held firm – gathered at company headquarters in McLean, Virginia, for an extraordinary two-day meeting.

Continued>>
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14963

[LeighAnn]

5. Pentagon closes controversial intelligence unit

Source: Sign on San Diego (Union Tribune)

The Pentagon Monday said it was closing a controversial intelligence office that had raised concerns about domestic spying by the military after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Defense Department said it had “disestablished” the Counterintelligence Field Activity office, or CIFA, which was created in February 2002 to counter possible threats to U.S. military installations.

<snip>

Lawmakers and civil liberties advocates criticized the office in 2005 for collecting and retaining information about U.S. antiwar protesters including Quakers.

Responsibilities of the discontinued office will be transferred to a new center run by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, a Pentagon statement said.


Read more: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20080804-1318-usa-military-intelligence.html

[Demeter]

6. And for the second time!

Or was it the same people, different group name?

[baldguy]

7. And to what office was it "disestablished" to?

[jwirr]

8. Could this have anything to do with Blackwater's move into intelligence? nt

[minnesota_liberal]

9. Who needs intelligence when you've got propaganda?

The propaganda unit is alive and well, thank you.

[jberryhill]

10. The White House Hasn't Had An "Intelligence Unit" in Several Years /nt

[Pastiche423]

12. Sounds like what the SOA did

They changed their name to Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. But that's all it changed. It is still a military school for despots, terrorists (real ones) and other assorted torturers.

[bluesmail]

13. Geez, CLOSED? Is that the best they can do, they ARE falling

apart.

[AwakeAtLast]

14. or, "The Pentagon has no intelligence!"

;)

[MetaTrope]

15. So I wonder what CIFA was close to learning

Remember that Bush shut down the intelligence offices tracking bin Laden and monitoring al Qaeda funding within weeks of getting into the White House.

[Marie26]

16. More like, the Pentagon outsources it. nt

[DemoTex]

17. Shell game.

Gives them time to shred/delete damning evidence before the Democrats take over in January.

[windoe]

20. Self preservation mode after discovery

shuffle shuffle, rename the department keep the mission, lay low for awhile, rinse repeat.